Fannin still top back despite Dyer’s debut
Hang on to the ball Super Mario
One fumble won’t spell disaster for Auburn’s No. 1 tailback.
Not this week, at least.
Mario Fannin, though he carried the ball just three times Saturday against Arkansas State, is still Auburn’s No. 1 option in the backfield, running backs coach Curtis Luper said. His third-quarter fumble led to a brief benching, Luper said, but it’s nothing permanent.
“It was the reason he didn’t go in on the next series,” Luper said. “Then the game got out of hand, and it moved on.”
Michael Dyer was the one doing all the moving while Fannin stood on the sidelines during most of Saturday’s second half. Dyer finished the game with 14 carries for 95 yards, second only to quarterback Cameron Newton in both categories, and his first career touchdown.
It’s prompted many Auburn fans to speculate that the Tigers’ future at tailback is now. Within the walls of the Auburn Athletic Complex, though, there’s little different being said now than there was before the season, when Fannin was dubbed Ben Tate’s top replacement.
“You’ve just got to sit back,” Fannin said. “The coaches know what they’re doing. You’ve just got to put your trust in them and just keep pressing forward and cheer your teammates on.”
It wasn’t like Fannin just stood around cheering on his teammates all night. He somehow escaped the eyes of Arkansas State defenders on two occasions, slipping free out of the backfield and catching touchdown passes of 36 and 38 yards from Newton.
This was a role Fannin was more accustomed to last year, though, when he was Auburn’s versatile H-back who caught the second-most passes on the team.
It just wasn’t what was promised as recently as August, when Luper guaranteed that Fannin would rush for more than 1,000 yards.
Fannin, who came to Auburn as a tailback from Lovejoy High in Hampton, Ga., is optimistic that nothing has changed.
“Sure, the carries, they weren’t big. But at the same time, it was the first game,” Fannin said. “You’ve just got to keep working and just stay humble, and at the end it will work out for you.
“That’s something my mom has told me and I’ve grown to learn that the humble person is the one that comes out in the end.”
Dyer has remained just as humble after his big debut, even when he was asked to compare his big night to a similarly strong debut from his former recruiting buddy, South Carolina freshman Marcus Lattimore.
His first carry in the second quarter was one of his favorite plays, a delayed run that kicked out to the side and gained 9 yards. He didn’t do much else in the first half, as Newton turned into a one-man show, but Dyer shined in the second half, running for 79 yards on 11 carries. He broke off runs of 19 and 20 yards and punched in his first career touchdown, a steamrolling 2-yard run straight up the middle.
“I can go out there and I know I can compete with these guys on a high level,” Dyer said. “And I’m back in the rhythm of playing football. I got a good understanding of how things work and how fast the pace is.”
The reason why Dyer was receiving so much work, of course, can be attributed to Fannin’s fumble. With his biceps bulging on his stocky, 5-foot-9 frame, Dyer held onto the ball as Red Wolves’ players, hungry after forcing three fumbles — one of which was overturned — in a five-minute span early in the third quarter, raked and clawed with reckless abandon.
“Every play, they were trying to get it regardless if we were on the ground of not,” Dyer said. “I didn’t fumble much in high school. I always keep the key points down … It’s easy for me to stay low to the ground. That’s probably one of my good qualities.”
Onterio McCalebb remains the wild card of the group, filling a role unique to his skill set and speed. He carried the ball nine times for 76 yards, nearly half of which came on a 36-yarder in the first quarter. It’s not expected he’ll be getting the ball any more or less in his current role as a change of pace to Fannin and Dyer’s similar, pounding style.
How the carries are divided between those two, hulking backs, however, remains to be seen.
“It’s always kind of as the game rolls on, how we call the game,” Chizik said. “It’s not necessarily ‘We expect him to get three and him to get nine.’ There’s a lot of variables in there.”
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